Former President Donald Trump found guilty of all 34 felony counts in hush money trial

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives at Manhattan criminal court during jury deliberations in his criminal hush money trial in New York, Thursday, May 30, 2024. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump has been found guilty of all 34 felony counts against him in the hush money case.

The jury deliberated for nearly 10 hours over two days to reach its verdict.

It comes in the first criminal conviction of a former president in U.S. history.

Prosecutors in Manhattan spent weeks presenting allegations that Trump participated in a hush money scheme aimed at suppressing stories he feared could be harmful to his 2016 presidential campaign. He was accused of making a $130,000 “hush money” payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in order to keep allegations of an affair out of the news, and falsifying business records to cover it up.

Trump had pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied having sexual relations with Daniels.

Even with the guilty verdict, Trump can continue his campaign for president. However, he still faces the possibility of jail time, which is at the discretion of the judge.

Sentencing has been scheduled for Thursday, July 11. That is four days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Trump spoke to reporters outside the courtroom, saying”This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.”

He said the case is “far from over.”

“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people, and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” Trump said. “We’ll fight to the end.”

President Biden’s campaign has released this statement:

“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law.

“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.

“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”